Propulsion
by Mrs. Crocodile
Summary: An object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an external force. The Zane/Jo relationship finds its external force when Eureka gets a new DOD liaison. AU-ish.  COMPLETE.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **If you'll recall, there was an extra week between episodes 4x18 and 4x19. (I think it was because of Labor Day.) During those long two weeks, this story occurred to me. And afterwards, I debated whether I really wanted to write a story that ignores two episodes. But then I started writing it, just to see if there was anything there anyway. And this is the result. So **NOTE**: This story randomly ignores the last two episodes of the season. Not because I didn't like them; just because they didn't fit.

**Author's Note, Part 2:** With the show coming back on 4/16, I scaled way back on the science storyline. It was really holding me up, because my scientific knowledge is somewhat basic. So, once I realized I was on a deadline, I decided I just had to power through. (You'll start to see this in Ch. 3). And anyway, maybe sometimes the problems get solved more easily than others. What I'm saying is, don't be surprised if I've basically cut the entire B-plot. Also, there's a good chance that the science around the VASIMR is just wrong. It's all Wikipedia and guessing.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Eureka, its characters, or its situations, and I am not making any money off their use here. Please don't sue me.

–

–

**Propulsion**

Summary: An object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an external force. The Zane/Jo relationship finds its external force when Eureka gets a new DOD liaison. AU-ish

Canon through: 4x18—One Time at Space Camp

–

**Chapter 1**

Jo tried not to spend the night at Zane's place if she could help it. In the drowsy haze of morning, when she opened her eyes and saw him, saw his room, saw everything looking exactly the way it should, it was too easy to forget. And then there was that moment three or four seconds later when she had to remember all over again that everything was wrong. That she was living in a bizarro world version of her real life.

She did not think of it that way very often. It had been almost a year, and she accepted that this was real life now. There was no going back to the world that she, that the five of them had known. It was time to make do here, and it seemed to Jo the rest had. Now that Henry was happily married to Grace, Jo was the only one left struggling. There were so many things she liked better about this world. Most of the time, it wasn't that hard to embrace her new life. But then there were those seconds when the memory of the old world pushed so hard at the edges of her brain, and there was that moment when she just knew that, great job or no, this was not the life she was meant to live.

On this particular Monday morning, she could feel him before she even opened her eyes. She was lying on her side facing him, her arms curled up between them. The lower part of one arm was pressed against the upper part of Zane's, elbow to elbow, her wrist to his shoulder. Jo resisted the urge to settle in closer to him and instead rolled onto her back.

Thinking it was being ignored, her phone's alarm increased its volume. The phone was located in the pocket of her pants, which in turn were located way out in the living room. "Are you going to get that?" Zane asked.

She ran her hands over her face. The alarm was set for the time she needed to wake up if she was starting her day at S.A.R.A.H. Adding in the commute, she would barely have time to shower and dress and get to work on time. "Yeah." She sighed. "I have to go."

"Of course you do," he muttered.

He was still mad at her for withdrawing from consideration for the Astraeus mission. Not too mad to have sex with her, just mad enough to make sarcastic, passive-aggressive comments. The whole reason she showed up at his apartment the night before was to try to explain herself to him one more time. Somehow, they had not gotten much talking done.

Jo rolled her eyes and threw off the covers. There was not time to be coy, and it was not anything he had not seen many, many times at this point. She dressed hastily in the clothes of hers that were in the bedroom and then went out to find her pants. "It's just that I can't be late today," she called back as she finally shut off the alarm. "I'm supposed to meet with the new DOD liaison in Allison's office first thing."

From the bedroom, he called back, "Whatever."

She walked back in to see him still lying in bed. "Could you stop acting like a sullen teenager for one minute and listen to me?"

He sat up. "Oh, I'm listening, Jo. You're the one who showed up here saying we needed to talk and then didn't say anything. And now, as soon as you wake up, you're out the door."

The worst thing was that she knew he was right this time. It was completely her fault that nothing got discussed the night before. "I am _trying_, Zane, but—"

He cut her off and lay back. "You don't have time for this."

Jo stared down at him. It was times like this, when he was being so aggravating, that she wondered if it was even worth smoothing over whatever she had done to so upset him. "You're right; I don't." With that, Jo left the apartment, slamming the door behind her.

–

Major Daniel Callahan was very punctual. Jo, somewhat uncharacteristically, was not. Allison took one last look out her window and into the rotunda, but there was no sign of Jo. "Our head of security should be here any minute, but I guess we'll just get started without her."

Allison was not entirely sure what to make of the Major. He was not the kind of person who was typically appointed to the liaison position. By giving the job to someone active military, an army intelligence officer from the Pentagon no less, General Mansfield was sending a clear message. He was not happy, and he intended to keep a closer eye on Eureka. It was not helpful to think of Major Callahan as a spy, but it was probably more or less accurate.

Putting aside whatever feelings she had about the meaning of Callahan's presence, Allison launched into her spiel. She had years of experience both as liaison and as head of Global Dynamics. She might not know what Mansfield had told Callahan on his end, but she knew what was required of a DOD liaison on the Eureka side.

Several minutes later, as Allison was wrapping up, Jo finally came running into the office. "I am so sorry I'm—" She stopped and stared at Callahan. "Late," she finished after a long delay.

Callahan's face lit up. "Lupo? God, how long has it been? You look great."

Jo did not share his enthusiasm for this apparent reunion. Her expression was more akin to shell-shock. "Hi, Danny," she said tentatively. "Uh, long time."

Allison prompted them to fill in the blanks. "So you two know each other?"

Callahan answered first. "Yeah, very well."

"Yeah," Jo echoed without taking her eyes off Callahan. "From West Point." Her gaze swept over his shoulders. "Wow, you're a major. That's. . ." She trailed off with a slight shake of her head. She had a weird smile plastered on her face, and Allison could not quite decipher it.

"Okay," Allison interjected. "I guess it's time to give Major Callahan a tour of the facility."

"Right." Jo turned to face Allison. "So, you'll do that and, uh, and then bring him by the security office, and my team can program his biometrics into the system."

"You're not going with us?" Callahan sounded disappointed.

"No, I—I think the plan was always for Dr. Blake to take you." Jo looked at Allison with pleading eyes.

That had definitely not been the plan, but Allison nodded. "Yes." She had only broad ideas of what the story was between Jo and Callahan, but it was fairly obvious that, whatever their history was, Jo needed time to deal with his presence at Global. Allison came around her desk. "We'll see Jo again at the end of the tour."

Allison was about to lead Callahan out the door when her phone rang. She checked the display. It was one of the researchers from the Astraeus ground crew. This close to the launch, Allison could not afford to ignore any little problem. "I'm sorry," she said to Callahan. "I have to take this. "I'll just be a minute."

Callahan nodded his understanding, and Allison turned her attention to her call. A second later, Jo's phone rang, probably with the same news: the Astraeus labs had just been evacuated because of a thermal management problem.

Allison hung up her phone and overheard Jo ask if they were _sure_ that everything was under control. Allison knew that Jo was not going to like what was about to happen, but she did not really have a choice. She walked over to that hideous white couch where Callahan had taken a seat. "We're having a problem with our VASIMR for the Astraeus mission. So I'm going to have Jo take you to do the biometrics, and we'll have that tour later."

Jo came up beside her. "No, you should take Danny with you," she said with just the slightest trace of panic in her voice. "This sounds important, and it would be a good opportunity for him to get his feet wet. Besides, he's an engineer, sort of."

Allison wanted to be sensitive to Jo's clear unease, but they had a facility to run. "I am aware of Major Callahan's educational background. However, this isn't a defense project, so it isn't important for him to be there, and he can't actually begin work until he has his security clearance. So I need you to take care of that."

Jo blew out her breath and smiled. "Of course." She turned to Callahan. "Follow me."

Allison told herself it would be fine. If she could handle working with her ex-husband all those years ago, then Jo could handle working with whatever Danny was to her. It was not until she was halfway to the lab that she realized that might not be the best example.

–

When Allison tacitly pulled rank on her, Jo knew that she had pushed too hard. She just really, really was not ready to be left alone with Danny Callahan. Of all the intelligence officers in all the military, it had to be him. There were hundreds of people to choose from, although maybe considerably fewer with a strong science or engineering background. And probably just the one up-and-comer whose father was in the same West Point graduating class as General Mansfield. The point was this was her town, and Danny did not belong there. She had not thought about him in years, and she would have preferred if she could have just gone on not thinking about him.

He looked almost exactly the same as he had in college, with those same clean-cut, all-American good looks. If anything, age had refined his features and made them better, and he'd finally found that perfect regulation haircut for his sandy brown hair. He looked good. Jo hated that about him.

"So," Danny started. "I take it you're not happy to see me."

Jo kept her eyes forward. It was only a little bit further to the biometrics lab, and that was her focus. Get through this walk, get him clearance, get time to breathe. "Don't be silly. I was just surprised."

He murmured as though he did not really believe her. "So how have you been?"

"Good. Great." Awkward, so awkward. She tried to steer the conversation away from herself. "Um, I heard you and what's her name got married."

"Her name is Rachel," he said with a smile. "And your intel's a little outdated because we just got divorced."

That brought up a whole new awkward complication for Jo. This Danny was from a different timeline than the one she remembered. She had no way of knowing if things happened the same way. It worked out this time because he did marry Rachel. But was that her name? Were they talking about the same person? She put it aside. She would just have to avoid specifics. "I'm sorry to hear that."

He shook his head. "It was for the best. What about you? Are you seeing anyone?"

Jo did not even think before answering, "Yes." For the moment, truth was not as important as not being single in front of Danny. It took another second for her to realize that there was a guy who she'd been "seeing", depending on how one defined the term. "He's a physicist here. Although he just made the Astraeus crew, so he's focusing on that right now." Jo stopped there before it started to sound like she was trying to make her guy sound impressive. Even though, she realized, that was exactly what she had been doing.

"That's great," Danny said with just a slight hint of insincerity. "Is it serious?"

This was the point where Jo had a decision to make. She knew that she should be honest and tell him that it was just casual. Anything else would just come back to bite her, especially since she and Zane were not on the best of terms at the moment. She opened her mouth to tell him exactly that, just casual. "Actually, yeah, it's getting pretty serious."

Luckily, they got to the lab before she could say anything else stupid. Jo greeted the biologist who was about to be her salvation from this conversation. "Dr. Dodson, I have the new liaison for you. He needs full clearance." She started to back her way out of the room. "So, I'll leave you to that."

Unfortunately, Dodson stopped her. "Wait, Lupo. As head of security, I need your passcode in order to grant Section 5 clearance."

"Right." She knew that. Jo reluctantly walked back into the lab. She could at least be glad that this process involved a lot of sitting still and not talking on Danny's part. She watched everything Dodson did, but she was not really paying attention. Her mind was too preoccupied with obsessing over her stupid lie. When the time came to type in her passcode, Dodson had to say her name twice to get her attention.

With the biometrics task completed, Jo did not know what she was supposed to do with Danny. "So, I guess I'll show you to your office, let you get settled in, until Dr. Blake is ready for you." She took off at a brisk pace.

Danny jogged to catch up. "Speaking of that, did she say they have a working VASIMR? Because I thought those weren't going to be ready for launch until 2014."

Jo was happy to talk about something other than personal lives, but this was not a subject about which she had much to say. "Yeah, well, welcome to Eureka."

"But is it the full 200 kilowatt engine with the higher thrust efficiency or is it just a spinoff of one of the earlier models?"

Jo had recently gotten a crash course in astrophysics, but rocket design had not been part of the curriculum. She shrugged. "Probably the full, high-efficiency one."

"Right, I guess that's not really your area," Danny said with a small laugh.

It was not really an insult. It was true, and it was pretty much exactly what Jo was thinking when he started asking about the VASIMR's specs, that it wasn't her area. Still, coming from Danny, it grated on her. Various genius scientists had earned the right to make her feel stupid; Danny had not. But she decided to assume that he hadn't meant it to be mean. "Nope."

They walked in silence for about a minute. Jo tried to think of something to say, some way to take control of the conversation because it kept getting away from her. She did not want to talk about how well Danny's career was going or his divorce, and she definitely did not want to talk about any of the projects that were going on in the facility. She settled on the only topic she could think of, a classmate who had recently been killed in action. Horribly depressing, but safe. "Did you hear about Maldonado?"

Danny blew out his breath. "You know, he wasn't the first to die, but that one's hitting me pretty hard. I hadn't talked to him in . . . probably five years, but I still remember meeting him that first day of basic training." He grinned at the memory. "He was almost a stereotype of an Italian New Yorker. Even the name: Maldonado."

Danny launched into a story about a weekend trip to Brooklyn when they were firsties, and he and Jo made it to the office without any more awkward silences. Jo gestured to the door. "Here we are."

The reality that Maldonado and others were really gone must have come back to Danny because his face grew pensive. "It just occurred to me that I've never even been in combat. I think from the Pentagon it's a little too easy to forget how dangerous it really is over there." He opened the door to his new office. He turned back to face Jo with a wry smile. "Although, with your special forces background, you probably don't have that problem."

With a small laugh and a nod, Jo started to make her escape, and she was almost successful. She lingered just a second too long for fear of making her exit too abrupt. As he stepped into his office, Danny added. "I gotta say, Lupo, you are the last person I would have expected to give it all up for a cushy private security job."

And then he was gone, into his office. Like a stealth bomber. It was not exactly an insult either, and she did have a fairly cushy job. But that was what Danny did; he made these snide comments, this and the thing about her not being a rocket scientist. He had this way of undermining her confidence. She stomped to her own office, two hundred yards and one left turn away from Danny's. It was not far enough. His office being in Washington, D.C., that was far enough away for her.

–

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	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

When Jo got to her office, she found Fargo waiting for her. Without thinking, she just unloaded all of her frustrations about the way her conversation with Danny had ended. "I am in charge of security at a facility that handles the most sophisticated and the highly classified defense contracts in the nation."

Fargo was slightly taken aback by her seemingly random declaration. "I know. I'm pretty sure I'm the one who gave you that job."

Jo crossed past him and over to her desk. "Why couldn't I say that to him?"

"Who?" Fargo asked, still very confused.

"Never mind," Jo said with a sigh. She leaned against her desk. "What's up?"

"We were doing the team photos." He pulled at the lapel of his Astraeus shirt. "But then they had to evacuated the lab because of the—"

"VASIMR," Jo finished, just to prove that she did actually know things. Which, again, was not really about Fargo. "So this is just a social visit?"

"No," he said quickly. "I heard that Mansfield sent a new liaison. Is he here?"

Of course this was about the new liaison. Jo was so sick of talking about and thinking about the new liaison. "Yeah, he got here this morning. Why?"

"So you and Allison met with him, and nobody thought that I should be told?"

"Um. . ." The easy answer would be to say that was right, but Jo had a feeling that was not the right answer here. She was not sure what Fargo was upset about, but she tried to be tactful in spite of that. "Well, you were busy with the Astraeus mission."

He paced around a little. "Do you think Allison is making a power play? Because she is only the _acting_ director. I still want to be director when I get back."

Now that she understood the problem, Jo prepared to deal with the paranoid little man in front of her. "I think Allison is just doing the job that you asked her to do. I don't think she's trying to steal it."

"She was director before." Fargo sounded unpersuaded. "And I know that none of you think I'm qualified for—"

"That's not true. We all think you're doing fine. Or that you were doing fine when you were—" Jo stopped that train of thought before it got derailed. She pushed off her desk and gave him a reassuring pat on the arm. "I really don't think you have anything to worry about."

There was a knock on the door, and they both turned to see who was there. Jo held back a groan when Danny let himself in without even waiting for a response. She still had not had time to process his being there.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I—" Danny's eyes fell on Fargo, and whatever else he had been about to say was forgotten. "Seriously, Lupo?" he laughed. "This is your physicist, astronaut boyfriend?"

For a second Jo was confused, but then she looked over at Fargo and realized just how close to him she was standing. She took a step back. "What, Fargo?" She shook her head vigorously. "No. No, no, no. He's just—"

Danny stopped paying attention to her as soon as he heard the name. "Fargo? As in the old director?" He held out his hand for Fargo to shake.

Fargo took his hand warily. "I prefer to think of myself as the once and future director."

"Okay." Danny gave him an easy-going smile. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm the new DOD liaison, Major Callahan."

Fargo seemed to realize that as the future director, he had a bit of an upper hand now. "Yeah, well, so far I don't like you that much."

The smile did not leave Danny's face as he stole a glance at Jo. "That seems fair."

"And just so you know," Fargo continued. "I have a girlfriend who is beautiful and incredibly smart and very flexible, and—"

"Fargo," Jo said sharply in order to cut him off before this whole thing got even more uncomfortable.

It occurred to Jo in that moment that Danny's need for a tour and Fargo's lack of anything better to do created the perfect opportunity for her to get rid of both of them. Before she could suggest this though, there was another knock on her door, and another man came into her office without being invited. Unfortunately, it was the last man she wanted to see right at that moment.

Zane sauntered in. "Hey, I had some time off, so I thought we could give—" He noticed the other men in the room. "—talking another try. I didn't realize you had company."

"_That's_ her boyfriend," Fargo told Danny.

One minute. If Zane had just waited one more minute before coming to her office, Jo would have had both Fargo and Danny well on their way. And then she and Zane could definitely talk, because they had a lot of things to talk about. She had known that this whole thing was going to fall apart; she just thought that she would get more than fifteen minutes out of it.

For his part, Zane did not say anything. He just made eye contact with Jo, a slightly amused look on his face. That gave Jo the crazy idea that maybe she actually could get away with this. "Right." She walked over to make the introductions before anyone else could say anything. "Zane Donovan, this is the new liaison I was telling you about, Major Daniel Callahan."

He covered it quickly, but Jo could tell that Danny did not find the sight of Zane nearly as amusing as he had Fargo. She felt a stab of petty satisfaction that almost made this whole deception worth it. She rushed on, still trying to control the situation. "So, I was thinking that since Danny still need—Major Callahan needs someone to show him around the facility, and Fargo, you also have some free time. I was thinking it would be the next best—better than getting the tour from Dr. Blake." She gave Fargo a light push toward the door. "So that works out well."

Danny followed Fargo to the door. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Dr. Donovan."

Zane nodded. "It's just . . . Donovan, but likewise."

Jo watched Danny leave, wondering if he had done that on purpose. He just met Zane; how could he possibly have known what kind of degrees Zane did or did not hold? On the other hand, if it had been one of Danny's snide, backhanded comments, it had not had the desired effect because Zane did not seem the least bit fazed by it.

Zane waited until Danny was out of earshot before saying anything. "So, boyfriend?" He smirked at her.

Jo walked over to her desk just to create some distance between them. "I never said boyfriend. Technically, I never used that word." She knew that was semantics, but it was all she had.

He followed her deeper into the office. "You're saying Fargo just took it upon himself to inform the new guy that you have a boyfriend, even though that's not strictly true?"

Jo considered shrugging and making a comment about who knows why Fargo does anything that he does, but no. No, they had to discuss this, because it was happening now. "That's not exactly what happened. There was some lead-in." She paused to think of how she should start, but there was no good way, so she just jumped in. "Danny asked if I was seeing anyone and I panicked. And then he thought it was Fargo, and that's why Fargo said what he did."

"You panicked," Zane repeated thoughtfully. "So, how well do you know Major Danny?"

She supposed he had the right to know, both as her potential co-conspirator and her . . . whatever he was to her. "We were in the same class at West Point. And we. . ." She sighed. "Danny was my first real boyfriend." After a second, she reluctantly added. "He was my first a lot of things. And I really liked him, and then I found out that he was also 'seeing' some girl at Vassar." That was enough information for Zane, for now.

"I still don't understand why you _panicked_."

Jo could see how that might sound strange, even if it was a completely accurate description of what happened. "I wasn't expecting him, okay? My ex-boyfriend just showed up out of nowhere. And he's already a major, which you probably don't know this, but that's really impressive. He was handpicked by Mansfield for this job; his career is going really well, and I'm . . ." She could not really explain why her own career was suddenly inadequate. "I just needed to win."

That did not seem to clear up his confusion. "Win what?"

"Life," Jo answered, thinking it should be obvious. "Don't you have someone in your past, some ex-girlfriend or whatever, that if you run into them you need them to think that your life is going better than theirs?"

Zane simply shrugged in response, which frustrated Jo. She changed tack. "And anyway, I didn't really lie. He asked if I was seeing anyone, and I said yes. And we're seeing each other, right? I seem to remember seeing quite a bit of you in that detention cell a couple weeks ago."

"That's right." Zane glanced at the cell behind him, smiling at the memory. "Over by that desk too, if I remember correctly," he said turning back to her. "So that's all you said, and Fargo just ran with it?"

"Yes," Jo said quickly. Then she remembered the rest of her conversation with Danny. "No. That might not have been _all_ I said."

"What else did you say?"

Zane was smiling, enjoying this. Jo found that very annoying so she avoided answering the question. "Look, if you're going to be an ass about this, I'll just tell Danny that he misunderstood." _Because I lied_, she added silently.

He watched her for a second, thinking. That was when Jo realized she had tipped her hand. He now knew she would rather not tell Danny that. After a second, he said. "You don't have to do that; I'll pretend to be your boyfriend." He looked so smug as he leaned in closer. "If you'll tell me why I'm the perfect guy to make your ex-boyfriend jealous."

He was still being an ass. "I never said you were."

He cocked his head as though to disagree. "You did say that having me as your boyfriend would be 'winning at life.'"

She supposed she had said something along those lines, but it was not what she meant. She had not even been thinking about Zane when she was talking to Danny, at least not at first. "No, I just didn't want Danny to think I was single."

"Okay, but if you want me to go along with this, you're going to have to tell me what makes me the perfect guy. Those are my conditions."

It was such a simple thing, but Jo balked at it. The last thing Zane needed was an ego boost, and odds were the truth would come out eventually. She knew that it was better to stop this madness now, but telling Danny that she lied was an even more unpleasant prospect.

Before she could make a decision, she got a message on her phone. Allison wanted her to come down to the Astraeus Lab. She breathed a sigh of relief. "Sorry," she said to Zane. "I have actual work to do."

"That's fine," Zane said with a shrug. "But the sooner you let me know, the better. Because I'd hate to run into Major Danny and not know what I'm supposed to say."

All that relief she'd been feeling dissipated. She thought this distraction would give her time to sort everything out, but Zane had turned it into more of a time crunch than before. She made the only rational decision. "I'm going to tell Danny the truth," she informed Zane on her way out. The the image of Zane and Danny talking to each other without her there to referee popped into Jo's head, and she knew that she would be worrying about that all day. She turned around. "But maybe you could try to avoid him today anyway."

Zane gave her a knowing nod, like he thought she was going to back out of it. All Jo meant by it was that she needed to be the one to make any corrections that needed making. And really, she would prefer if Danny and Zane never talked about her, but knowing the two men as she did, that was unlikely. She was about to clarify this for him, but then she thought better of it. Until this whole thing was cleared up, she preferred to let Zane believe whatever he needed to believe to keep him from talking to Danny. So instead of getting defensive, Jo continued on to the Astraeus lab, leaving things exactly the way they were.

–

–

**Author's Note:** Two things about Zane not having a doctorate: (1) He was kicked out of every school he went to, and (2) S.A.R.A.H. called him Mr. Donovan in "The Ex-Files." (Just preemptively defending that choice in case anyone had questions.)


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note:** As promised, dropped B-plot! (Which is to say that I'm aware of it, and I'm embracing it.)

–

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**Chapter 3**

In the Astraeus Lab, Allison and Henry explained the problem to Jo. She got the gist of it. Something about electromagnets, really hot plasma, and sabotage. When they described it again to Carter twenty minutes later, she was able to glean even more. There was a momentary disruption in the electromagnetic field that usually contains the VASIMR's waste heat and keeps the hot plasma from destroying the ship. The safeguards used to prevent that from happening had been tampered with. If they had just said that, it would have saved a lot of time.

Carter and Jo talked to Dr. Kemp, the engineer in charge of building the VASIMR. Kemp felt the need to overload them with more unnecessary information about the system, but she also pointed them to Dr. Schwartz, who worked specifically on the safeguards that had malfunctioned. By 3 p.m., Jo knew as much about electromagnatism as she was ever going to.

She spent the next few hours reviewing security records for an anomalies between the first test run and the second, but she found nothing noteworthy. As she was about to call it a day, she realized that she had forgotten all about her Danny problem. She wanted to get this done today, and she did not want to have to do it at Danny's home or in any other kind of social situation, so time was running out. She walked briskly to Danny's office, hoping he would still be there.

Fortunately, he was. Of course, as soon as Jo saw him sitting at his desk, she realized that she had no idea what she was going to say. Luckily, Danny got the ball rolling by saying, "So, Zane Donovan?"

He had a little bit of a smirk, and she did not like that. But she put that aside, because things were about to get worse for her anyway, and she needed to get this over with. "Yeah, about that . . ."

Danny did not let her say whatever she had been about to say, which she was still not sure of anyway. "I just have one question and then I'll let it go. Did Senator Wen know that you were dating him when you convinced her to pardon his _felony_ convictions?"

There was so much judgment in that, and only a small part of it was directed at Zane. The truth wouldn't even make it much better, but Jo was no longer so concerned with making sure Danny knew the truth. "You know, I'm not sure that came up. But it's not really relevant because Wen based her decision on the recommendations of Dr. Blake, Dr. Fargo, Dr. Marten, Dr. Parrish, Sheriff Carter . . ." She tried to think of anyone else Wen might have consulted, but she could not come up with more at that moment. "And she based it on her own assessment that Zane would be an asset to the mission and should be allowed to continue his candidacy. So my personal feelings didn't really factor into it."

"Okay," Danny said as though he was conceding the point. For a second, Jo thought he was really going to let it go, but that smirk still hadn't quite left his face. Instead, it spread into a full grin. "The guy's a criminal, Lupo. We're talking conviction_s_, plural."

"He had to plead guilty on all counts as a condition of being paroled here." Jo had no doubt that Zane did every single thing he was accused of and more, but she did not have to say that. "Technically, he was never convicted."

That did not really make a difference to Danny. "He stole three million dollars from the United States government, which was never recovered by the way. And forget about just the things that got him sent here. Did you know he was expelled from M.I.T. for 'misappropriation of university property?' Whatever that means."

Jo should have known Danny would do his research. She could have told him that, as Zane's girlfriend, she knew everything about Zane, but it was easier to keep defending him than to get into that relationship. This was a digression, and she almost welcomed it. "I know they didn't press charges, and that Yale, knowing exactly what happened at M.I.T., immediately recruited him into their graduate physics program."

"And then kicked him out two years later."

Even knowing what he was going to say next, she continued. "At which point Cornell picked him up."

"And subsequently expelled him," Danny said with a smile.

"Not until after he won a prestigious award for his work in super—"

He cut her off, probably because he already knew all of this. "You don't have to recite his resume, Lupo. I'm sure the guy's a brilliant physicist. I get why he's here. I even kind of understand why Wen wanted him on Astraeus. What I don't get is what you see in the guy."

Jo did not know what she was supposed to say to that. "Because you don't know him. All that stuff from before, that's not who he is. He was young, and he acted out. We all did stupid things when we were young." She had not intended that as a reference to the stupid choices she made regarding Danny, but if he chose to take it that way, so much the better. "Since he's been here, he's changed. He doesn't do that kind of stuff anymore."

"Really? I have three years of disciplinary reports that suggest otherwise." He paused. "Or actually, not quite three years. In fact, I'm pretty sure I can pinpoint the exact moment you started sleeping with him."

That was it. She was just so sick of Danny that she did not give herself time to think. "You want to know what I see in Zane? He's not a lying, cheating bastard. I'll take the fraud convictions over that any day."

That finally wiped the stupid smile off his face. "I know we never really got the chance to talk after what happened in Georgia, but—"

She knew where this was going, and she did not want to rehash all the ugly details. She needed to make it clear that she had not been pining away for him all these years. "I don't need to talk about it. I'm fine; I'm with Zane now. You're the one who seems to be having a problem here." That was a good ending note, and she wanted to get out of there before he took back control of the conversation. "So, you should work on that," she added, and then she walked out.

It was not until she was outside the office that she realized what she had said. It would be very counterproductive to go back and tell him that technically she wasn't exactly _with_ Zane. It was probably too late to ever tell him that. That left her with only one option.

–

Zane was not surprised when Jo showed up at his door that evening. He had been expecting her.

When she came in, she closed the door behind her and leaned against it. It took her a while before she finally said, "I talked to Danny."

"Hmm." Zane had a pretty good idea how that conversation had gone. But maybe he was wrong, maybe she had actually corrected the misconceptions. So he asked, "How did that go?"

"Not . . ." She sighed. "Not the way I wanted it to." She took a deep breath. "So now all I have to do is tell you why, um, why I want you to be my fake boyfriend, and you'll do it, right?"

He would do it either way. He did not like the idea of Jo's ex-boyfriend thinking she was single any more than she did, but he was not going to tell her that. After all these months of her holding back, he finally had to chance to make her be candid about what she was feeling, and he was not going to let that pass him by. "Yeah. You should make it good though."

The conversation had just started, and Jo was already annoyed with him. She crossed over to the couch, but she did not sit down. "Well, first of all, you are literally a genius. And Danny, he's very intelligent, in the real world. He's used to be being one of the smartest guys in any room, and I don't think he realizes yet how hard it's going to be to go from that to here, where he's below average. But eventually he is going to have to begrudgingly admit to himself that you are much, much smarter than him. Even if you don't have a Ph.D."

That last part seemed to come out of left field. "Did he say something about me not having a Ph.D.?"

"He called you Dr. Donovan," she said, as though he should have seen the slight in that.

Zane was pretty sure that had been an honest mistake, and Major Danny hadn't been the first one to make it. Still, he felt the need to set the record straight. "If I really cared about getting a Ph.D., I'd have one by now."

"I know," she said sincerely. "And soon, Danny will know that too."

"Okay. So I'm smarter than him. But as you pointed out, there's a lot of guys like that here. So what else?"

She cringed a little, like she was hoping he had forgotten the real purpose of this conversation. "Also . . ." She took a long pause before reluctantly saying, "You're very attractive. And not in a science professor, Nathan Stark kind of way, but—"

Even though he was enjoying where this was going, he felt the need to stop her there. "Wait, you thought Stark was attractive?"

She went on as though she had not heard him. "But in an athletic way, which is the kind of male attractiveness that someone like Danny would be able to recognize and ultimately feel threatened by.

"And then there's your criminal record," she continued. "Normally, that would be a huge negative, but I think the whole bad boy thing is really going to grate on someone as straight-laced and by the book as Danny. Because we did talk about that, and he has got to hate that I'm so blasé about you committing grand larceny. I'm not the kind of woman who would overlook that for just anyone."

Now they were getting somewhere. He did not need her to tell him that he was a genius, and it didn't really help to know that Major Danny would find him attractive. But this, overlooking his criminal past, that wasn't just about making her ex jealous. That was something she had really done, not just for their fake relationship. And not for "just anyone." Those were the kind of things he had been looking for out of this conversation, and he was ready to tell her that he would go along with her exaggerations—because, at the end of the day, that was all they were. However, she had one more thing to say.

"But really, and never underestimate the importance of this, the reason I described you when coming up with a fake boyfriend is because we are _sleeping_ together. I did not think it out any further than that. It just works out that you're also. . ."

"Perfect?" he supplied for her.

She did not dignify that with a response. "So are we good here?" she asked, sinking down onto the couch.

Zane decided to try and push his luck. "Why did you withdraw from the Astraeus mission?"

She shook her head. "That wasn't part of the deal."

Zane did not know what Jo had told Callahan, but it was obvious that it was too late for her to go back on it now. She needed Zane to go along with this, and he could have used that to force her to tell him what he wanted to know. But it just did not seem as important as it had as recently as that morning. When she didn't tell him that she wanted him to stay in Eureka after he was pardoned and when she took her name out of consideration for the mission, it felt like she was pulling back. Going through the candidacy together, they had been on a path of sorts. Zane did not know where that path was leading, other than Titan, and he was content not to ask those questions. But when Jo withdrew, it was like she was opting off the path, opting to send him away for six months while she went back to her regularly programmed life. And they would still have to deal with those six months, but for the next three weeks until the launch, she was not going to be able to pull away from him.

Over the last several months, even when things were at their best between them, even after she stopped telling him every time that it would be their last time, he had felt her holding back something, some part of herself. There was just a weight hanging over them, the weight of her history with the Zane he could have been. And try as he might, Zane could never quite forget about the diamond ring that he had apparently given her in an alternate timeline, the diamond ring that he was nowhere near ready to give her in this timeline. He knew that she was in a different place, that she was years ahead of him, and he tried to be understanding, but it was getting exhausting. They were never going to get anywhere doing this dance of two steps forward, two steps back.

But now, there weren't going to be any steps back. He would get the chance to date her without any of the pressure of her history in a different world, because they would just be pretending. If she did not see how perfectly this worked out for Zane, then he was not going to enlighten her. "Okay. You got yourself a fake boyfriend. You want to spend the night?"

She glanced over at the kitchen. "Do you have anything for dinner?"

He revised his question. "Do you want to get food at Cafe Diem and then spend the night here?"

Jo only needed to think about it for a second. "Yeah," she said, standing up.

Zane hid a smile as he followed her out the door. Whether Jo realized it or not, nothing had actually changed between them that day except the way they referred to the relationship to one third party. Yet, he got to pretend like he was doing her a favor. So far, Zane was perfectly okay with this Major Danny development.

–

–


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note:** Okay, so I don't write well on a deadline, which is one of many reasons why I don't do this professionally. But at least I established a foundation before the new canon started up again.

–

–

**Chapter 4**

Somewhere around the end of dinner was when it finally occurred to Jo that she was on a date with Zane. Not a fake date to keep up appearance in case Danny should walk in or at the very least hear about it. No, this was a real date, after which she was going to go back to Zane's place and "spend the night." She was a little horrified to realize that she had basically tricked Zane into being her boyfriend, at least for the next few weeks until he left for the Astraeus mission. She decided not to comment on this in case he hadn't noticed.

They had walked to Cafe Diem because it was a nice enough night for it. On the walk back to Zane's apartment, they fell into a silence that felt awkward to Jo. Now that she realized what she had done, she was not sure how to talk to him.

Zane picked up the slack in the conversation. "I'm still confused about one thing. Why does it matter if I have a doctorate? Does Major Danny have one?"

Jo was relieved to be talking about Danny. Anything to distract her from whatever was happening between her and Zane. "Don't call him that. And no, no doctorate. But he does have a masters degree from Georgia Tech."

"Well, I have one of those. From M.I.T., so. . ."

Jo was starting to realize that she probably should never have brought up anything about Ph.D.s. "Don't worry; you're _definitely_ smarter than him." The only reason Danny's masters mattered at all was in comparison to herself, and she decided to explain that to Zane. "Me on the other hand? While he was getting a degree in mechanical engineering, I was majoring in practical weapons application."

Zane gave her a sideways glance. "Is that a real major at West Point?"

Of course it was not a real major. She could have pointed out that West Point was a real university, with four years of real coursework, but she went in a different direction instead. "Is it not one at M.I.T.?"

"Okay, now I really don't know if you're being sarcastic."

She smiled. "I majored in military history. But my point is that really I majored in being in the Army, whereas Danny got a real degree."

He gave that some thought. "So you've lived here for over five years, among the greatest scientific minds in the country, Nobel Prize winners, people _I'm_ impressed to be working with, and it's _Major_ _Danny_ who makes you feel insecure?"

Now that he put it that way, it did seem absurd. Back in college, it made sense, but for her to still feel this way? "I guess it's twofold. One, he's a normal. I don't compare myself to you guys, but I can usually hold my own against the normals. And two, . . . just being around him, it's making me regress back to all that insecurity and uncertainty."

"That doesn't really sound like you. You've always been so strong and confident."

"Not always." Jo was a little flattered that he saw her that way. She decided not to mention how much of a wreck Zane had made her since Founders' Day. "College is just a confusing time. You're kind of an adult but not really, you're on your own for the first time, you're charged with securing peace and liberty for an entire nation. . ."

"That was not my experience in college."

"Yeah, and then you throw first love on top of all that. I mean, not . . . I didn't love him, but I thought I did at the time, and for a while after we broke up. Which happened when we were cows—" She realized that West Point jargon would be lost on Zane. The use of it was just another sign that she was regressing. "Or, um, juniors. With a year and a half left. And it's a small school, and we had a lot of the same friends. So I still had to spend a lot of time around him. And I just. . ." She shrugged. "I found it difficult to be as strong and confident as I wanted. And now he's here, and I still feel. . ." A few choices for the end of that sentence popped into her head, but she did not want to say any of them out loud. She was sure Zane got the point.

Zane did not say anything in response to that. He seemed to be giving something she said a lot of thought. Jo realized that he had not really asked about any of that stuff, and she was sure that he did not really want to hear her talk about her relationship with another man. Then she had to remind herself that Zane was not actually her boyfriend.

As they approached the building, Zane finally spoke again. "I probably should have asked this before, but what exactly are you looking for in a fake boyfriend?"

She had not really thought about that. She did not want to get into specifics, not after that realization she'd had at dinner. So she simply said, "You're doing great."

"Still," he said, opening the door for her. "We should probably at least get our story straight. When this started and all that."

The best thing was to keep it simple. "Right after you burned down my house." Then she remembered something Danny had said earlier about being able to pinpoint when it started based on disciplinary reports. That couldn't be right. "Our first kiss was after you were arrested for treason."

"And that's what you want to tell Major Danny?"

"Seriously, stop calling him that. And yeah, we'll just say everything happened the same way." Surely, he was going to notice now. "Except it was more serious," she added as a thin veil of cover. Something very important occurred to her. "But nothing about time travel."

"I know," Zane said, like he was almost insulted that she felt it necessary to tell him that.

"No, but it's especially important with Danny—Callahan." Maybe if she didn't call him Danny, Zane wouldn't either. "He can't even get a whiff of time travel. All you need to know about Callahan is that he's the kind of Army officer who gets promoted quickly. He takes protocol very seriously. So there was none of that, no ring; you kissed me in the sheriff's office for some other reason. And I avoided you between then and the fire for other reasons."

"What were they?"

Zane took a few innocent steps toward her, and the sudden proximity made her feel a little flushed. She stepped back and ran into the kitchen's breakfast bar. She tried to make that look natural. "It doesn't matter; he won't ask."

He placed his hands on either side of her. "But what if he does?" he asked with a slight hint of a smirk. "We don't want to have to make it up on the spot."

Jo told herself to focus. She looked into his eyes and ignored everything else. "Just say. . . Well, I don't know exactly why you kissed me. Probably because I defended you so vehemently on the treason charge, and you thought. . . I don't know what you were thinking; you just did it." There was a second part that she did not really want to expound on. "And I didn't realize that I had feelings for you until it happened, and even then I didn't want to admit it to myself, so I avoided you. And then you burned down my house, because you're crazy. That's the story we'll go with."

"That I'm crazy?"

She did not think that was the most important part, but if he wanted to focus on it, that was okay with her. "Yeah, you won me over with your fiery passion. Literally."

"So the story is that you fell for me because I committed arson? You're really pushing this bad boy thing, aren't you?."

"It is what most sets you apart from—" She almost forgot to use his last name. "—Callahan."

Zane narrowed his eyes and pondered that for a second. "What if we say that I burned down your house because of neural linguistic programming?"

Jo's eyes had started to wander to his mouth and neck and chest. She snapped them back up and shrugged. "You tell the story your way, and I'll tell it mine. Now, have we done enough talking for tonight?"

He smiled. "Oh, yeah." He leaned in to kiss her.

–

The next morning, Zane and Jo went into work separately. It was better not to alter their daily routine too dramatically, she said. Zane saw the logic in that, and it really supported his "nothing had actually changed" theory.

Zane did not have a lot of work at the moment. He had gotten through most of the month's checklist a couple weeks earlier after his pardons came through. So, he decided to spend his morning consulting with a colleague who was working in non-lethal weapons. It was not that surprising when Major Danny came by to familiarize himself with the project. The whole lab had Department of Defense implications.

Even though Jo considered one of Zane's assets to be his higher IQ, he chose to play it as someone with nothing to prove. It was important to give the impression that he was secure in his relationship, which he mostly was. Jo had said a couple troubling things the night before, but that conversation had ended in a really good place, so he was not too worried about it . He just treated Major Danny like he would anyone else. This was not even his project, so he did not have much to say about it.

When he had finished inspecting the prototype, Callahan approached Zane away from the other researchers. "Dr. Don—Mr. Donovan, sorry, we didn't really get a chance to talk yesterday."

All right, maybe he was doing that on purpose. "I didn't realize we had anything to talk about," Zane said amicably.

Callahan smiled. "No, I just –I knew Jo back in college, and I wanted to make sure she was in good hands."

Zane returned his smile. "She's in great hands. I'm not the one who cheated on her. Repeatedly." He was taking a chance with that, but "seeing a girl at Vassar" sounded like it happened more than once.

Callahan thought about that for a second, or at least he pretended to. "I did cheat on her at West Point, when we still basically kids. But technically in Georgia, she and I were cheating on my now ex-wife."

Zane tried so hard not to react to that. He knew he'd failed when Major Danny continued. "Oh, I'm sorry, did she not tell you about that?"

Zane was trying to think. Georgia sounded familiar, but his mind could not quite place it. "No. No, I don't think she mentioned anything about that. Of course, unless it happened in the last year, it's not really that important, is it?"

"Oh, no, this was awhile ago." He was really selling that he did not mean anything by it. "_Long_ before you two got together."

Zane could only assume that he had stressed the word long to emphasize his history with Jo. He nodded. "I figured as much." Now that they had sufficiently sized each other up, there did not seem to be anything left for them to say. "Okay, good talk. I'm going to get back to work."

Callahan let him go easily. It was not until Zane was back to examining the prototype that he finally remembered Georgia Tech. A good engineering school, not a great one. Now he had a probable timeframe for whatever happened with Jo in Georgia. He was still going to do some research though.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Once Zane had hacked into the Department of Defense mainframe, it was not hard to find detailed records of every place Jo and Major Danny had been during their entire military careers. That was the nice thing about the Army. He found the overlap in Georgia quickly.

When he thought back on everything Jo had told him about the relationship, he was sure the story had ended with the Vassar girl. He did not like the idea that she was hiding something from him. Something kind of big the way Major Danny told it. Of course, Major Danny would want to make things sound worse then they were, and there was always the chance Jo left off the Georgia part of the story because it really was not that important. There wasn't even that much overlap. Zane was not sure whether or not he should find it encouraging that Major Danny had clearly not expected him to know about Georgia.

He knew that he just needed to talk to Jo, and she would be able to clear up this whole thing. However, when he tried to find her, she was not in her office or anywhere else in the facility. That was not unusual; her investigations often took her offsite. So instead of talking to Jo, he sought out Fargo, who just might have some insight of his own.

He found Fargo in his lab, so at least one person was easy to find. Zane jumped into the conversation. "Hey, you and Callahan talked while you were giving him that tour, right? Did he say anything about Jo?"

Fargo shrugged. "Just that they went to college together." He thought about that for a second. "I think there might be more to it though. He did seem really curious about you two."

Zane supposed it was too much to hope that Major Danny had spilled his own version of events to a relative stranger. "And what did you tell him?"

"The truth," Fargo said, like he was not aware there was another option.

Zane found that answer to be too vague. "What truth?" Then it occurred to him that, of all the people in the know, Fargo was the one with the loosest lips. "You didn't tell him about the whole . . . time shift thing. Did you?"

Fargo took offense. "Yeah, I just casually mentioned that to the guy from the DOD," he said sarcastically. "Despite the fact that I've gone this whole time without telling anyone else."

"You told me."

He got defensive. "Because I thought we were going to die! And I only clarified what you already knew because Jo screwed up."

That might have been true. "Okay, so what did you tell Callahan?"

"That it's been going on for months, and you guys think you're doing a good job of keeping it secret, but you're not."

That was actually perfect. It accounted for the fact that they had never used terms like boyfriend and girlfriend or relationship or dating in public up to that point. And it was more or less the truth. "All right," he said, clapping Fargo on the back. "Thanks, man."

"Do you know what the story is between Jo and Major Callahan?"

That reminded Zane of what he had really been hoping to get out of this conversation. "Some of it," he said as he headed out.

Zane checked in on Jo's office periodically, but by the time the end of the day rolled around, she still had not returned. There was a time when not seeing Jo Lupo for an entire workday meant that Zane was having a good day, but that had changed a while ago. And today in particular, he had something he really wanted to discuss with her.

She called him that evening to let him know that she was tired and that she just wanted to crash at her place that night. Again, normally that would be fine, but it would just give him that much longer to obsess about what Major Danny had said that morning. He could have brought it up right then, but it was not really a conversation he wanted to have over the phone, so it would have to wait just a little bit longer.

–

Jo returned to her office on Wednesday to find a rising pile of things she needed to deal with. The day before she may have spent more time away from GD than strictly necessary in order to avoid running into Danny. But it worked. She had a Danny-free Tuesday, she processed his presence in her town, and she was better prepared to move forward. At least that was what she was telling herself.

Things with Zane were going oddly okay. She was not sure why the arrival of her college boyfriend had fixed the tension caused by her withdrawing from the Astraeus mission, but she was glad he finally let it go because she still had not found a satisfactory way to explain that decision to him. When she reflected back on that first night after Danny's sudden arrival, she realized just how easily he had agreed to the whole thing. Sure, he made her jump through some hoops, but not nearly as many as he could have.

When Zane came by her office later that day, she was really happy to see him, despite the fact that she was still backed up on work. As soon as she saw his face, though, she could tell that something was off.

He tried to play it cool. "Hey, I missed you last night."

Jo followed his lead and pretended that she couldn't tell that some kind of hammer was about to fall. "Yeah, but I think I really benefited from getting a full night's sleep."

He smiled at that as he sat down in one of the chairs in front of her desk. Then he feigned a casual tone and posture. "So Major Danny implied that you two were in Georgia at the same time."

It was not stated as a question, but Jo knew that he was waiting for an explanation. "Of course he did. I attended Ranger School while he was at Georgia Tech, and part of that does take place in Georgia."

"And that's all he meant?"

"No." Jo told herself that she had planned to tell Zane about this eventually, but she knew that was not true. "I got to Fort Benning a few days—almost a week early. And for some reason, Callahan just happened to be on base at that same time. It wasn't even that long after graduation, just over a year I think. But it felt like we really had distance from everything that happened before. And we . . . " It was difficult for her to get the words out. She could not even find a euphemism that she liked, so she left it alone. "And then I found out . . ." Yeah, she definitely did not want to talk about this.

"That he was _married_?" Zane supplied for her.

That took Jo completely by surprised. "What? No! Is that what he—No, he was not married." She paused. "He was engaged though."

It did not look like the distinction made that much difference to Zane. "But to clarify, you did sleep with him?"

"Yeah." That should not have been news. Even if she omitted the details about Georgia, she was sure that she had been upfront about that happening at West Point. "Maybe I should have told you earlier, but it's not really something I'm proud of. And as soon as I found out, I stopped it. And it was only a few days anyway. He went back to Atlanta, and I went off to Ranger School, which is an excellent place to work out aggression. And I didn't see him again until he showed up here. I'm not really sure why it matters."

Zane stood up. He seemed much more upset about this than was reasonable. "It matters because before, it was a one-time thing, but now, it's a pattern. I needed to know that."

"It's not a pattern." He was making way more of this than it was. "It's just a mistake that I made years ago."

"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure he thinks you're going to make that mistake again."

Jo had not thought about that; she had been purposefully avoiding thinking about what Danny's expectations might be. But now it was out there, and she could not deny that Zane might have a point. "He might," she admitted reluctantly.

"Are you?" When she did not immediately respond, he asked it in a different way. "Do you think you're going to sleep with him?"

Jo had not realized that would be such a difficult question to answer. After a pause that was a little too long, she said the only thing she could think of. "I don't want to."

He laughed drily. "That's not an answer."

She knew that, and she wanted to tell him no, but she also did not want to make him any promises. It bothered her that she couldn't say with certainty that it would not happen over the next six months. But the thing was that she could not really be certain about anything in the next six months. It was a long time, and this whole thing with Zane wasn't real. Or least it was not real enough. She tried to find another way to say probably not, but they all sounded just as wishy-washy as her first answer.

Zane got tired of waiting. "Is that why it was so important to you that he not think you were single? Were you trying to put up some kind of barrier to keep you from doing it?"

She had no idea what she was thinking when she said those things to Danny. It had just been an impulse, no thought process involved. Yet, this was another thing that, once Zane said it, she couldn't really deny it. "I guess that might have been part of it."

He nodded. "Then maybe you should have chosen a fake boyfriend who wasn't leaving in three weeks."

"I didn't _choose_ you."

"That's right; Fargo did." At that, he just walked away.

Jo was not sure if he was leaving or if he was just pacing. "That's not what I meant. I—"

Zane turned back and leaned over the chair he'd been sitting in, placing his hands on the backrest. Something had changed in him. "No, it's fine," he said in an easygoing tone. "We'll just keep up appearances for the next three weeks, and then after I'm gone, you can do whatever you want; I don't care." He pushed off from the chair and headed back to the door.

This time he really did leave. Jo was not sure what had just happened. At first, he had been completely overreacting, but she realized that was preferable to the way he ended things. Something about the way he said he didn't care worried her because he actually sounded like he meant it. But she was certainly not going to chase after him, and she still had all this work left to do anyway. As long as he was willing to keep up appearances, Zane's issues, whatever they were, could wait.

–

–

**Author's Note:** There are reasons this took so long, and the Season 5 premiere is one of them. Even with the way the episode ended, it was still. . . troubling. (And not because of Jo/Zane, either. It's because there is no time, no space, no way Jack and Allison don't end up together.) But there were other, writing related reasons too. Also, now that I'm not trying to beat the premiere, it might be more like once a week anyway.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note:** Since I dropped the B-plot, things have been happening way too fast. So the delay is often caused by me trying to figure out how to slow it back down. Now you know. (That's also why this chapter is a little short.)

–

–

**Chapter 6**

Zane took off from Jo's office with no set destination in mind. He followed the hallway as it curved, which of course took him right past Major Danny's office. There was no one in the office, but Zane got annoyed just seeing it.

On the surface, Jo's version of the events in Georgia were not that bad. Zane had spent nearly twenty four hours thinking about all the different possibilities that flowed from what Major Danny said, and really, Jo's story was probably the best case scenario. Second best. The real best case scenario would be that Major Danny made the whole thing up. But a few days, several years ago, and he was not even really married at the time, that was about as good as it was going to get. Zane could not really place why it was bothering him so much.

Sure, there were all those things he said about her pattern. It did change things to know that she took Major Danny back. And then there was that. She took him back after he cheated on her; that did not sound like the Jo Lupo Zane knew. She did tell him before that she had trouble being strong and confident around Major Danny, but this new information cast that in a different light. When she said that she had obviously been referring to back then, but was she still having that trouble now? And what would that mean for the six months that Major Danny was here and Zane wasn't? Somehow, Zane had not gotten around to thinking about that before now.

When Zane turned the next corner, there was the man himself getting off the elevator. Seeing Major Danny put Zane in an even worse mood. The two men acknowledged each other's presence with a polite nod as they passed.

And then Zane knew what it was that was really bothering him. It was the "I don't want to." That was an answer, and it was not the one he wanted. It was when Jo said that his felony convictions were the one real difference between him and Major Danny. It was that the Jo Lupo he knew never showed any kind of weakness, except when it came to Zane. And now . . .

With all of that swimming around in his head, Zane made a bad choice. He turned back and called after Major Danny, as though any good could come from that. "Callahan, wait."

Major Danny met him halfway. "Yeah?"

There was no one else in that hall at the moment, so Zane could at least be relieved that he would not have an audience. With nothing planned, Zane just winged it. "Look, I get that you have a history with my girlfriend, and it's obvious that you still want her."

Major Danny shook his head like that was ridiculous. "Zane, I—"

Zane was not sure when they had gotten on a first name basis, but okay. "Don't. And I get this feeling from you that you're just biding your time for three weeks until I'm gone, and then you're going to make your move. And if that's the case, I can't really do anything about it." That was not a good place to end, so he kind of had to keep going. "And I wish I could tell you that we're impervious to sabotage, but I'm going to be gone the same amount of time we've been together. And I'm not crazy about the idea of her ex-boyfriend being in town during that time."

Zane was still trying to figure out where he was going with this when Major Danny interrupted. "Okay, I don't know when you're going to get to a point, but all I'm hearing is that you think there's a pretty good chance your girlfriend is going to sleep with me while you're gone."

That was a fair assessment of what he was saying. Why couldn't he just tell Major Danny that they _were_ impervious to sabotage? Now he had to figure out a damage control strategy. "Well, what I'm really saying is I don't know what's going to happen while I'm gone. It's not an ideal situation. But what I do know is that when I get back, no matter what happened with you, she's going to pick me because she is crazy about me. And that's what I wanted you to know."

Zane knew that was about as well as he could hope to salvage things, so he turned and walk back toward the elevator. From behind him, Danny called, "You know, she used to be crazy about me."

Zane did not break his stride. "Yeah, used to be."

The most logical place for Zane to go was the elevator, since there was nothing on this floor for him. But it would mess up his cool exit if he just stood waiting at the end of the hall, so instead he turned yet another corner. At this point, he had pretty much circled back around to Jo's office. He probably should have gone back to her; he had not really left things on the best of terms. But after his stupid conversation with Major Danny, he did not trust himself to talk to Jo. No, right now, he just wanted to do something easy, like adjust the calibrations of the low-background multi-HPGe spectrometer for measuring neutrinoless double beta decay.

–

After her upsetting and confusing conversation with Zane, Jo had trouble getting her mind back on work. His declaration that he didn't care got stuck on a loop and made it difficult for her to concentrate. Because what did that even mean? What, was he just done with her because of something that happened years before she ever heard of Zane Donovan? How many women in this very town had he slept with prior to hooking up with her, while she was faithful to him during the same period in an alternate timeline? What right did he even have to be upset?

She picked up her tablet for probably the fifth time since Zane walked out, and she almost remembered what it was that she needed to look up. But then Danny walked in, without knocking, and completely wrecked her concentration again.

"Hey, I just ran into Zane out in the hall." He gestured out in that direction. "Did you guys have a fight or something?"

Jo did not know how to answer that. She was not even sure whether or not that was a fight, let alone what she wanted to tell Danny about it. She laid the tablet back on her desk. "Why? What did he say?"

Danny shrugged. "Nothing specific. It just sounded like maybe you guys had a fight and that maybe it had something to do with me."

So much for keeping up appearances. "We talked about you. It wasn't a fight."

"Oh, was it about what happened in Georgia? Because I honestly thought he knew or I wouldn't have said anything."

Jo laughed. "You didn't think he knew. You _hoped_ he didn't know." What really bothered Jo was that Danny's attempt to cause problems between them worked. If what happened was a fight, that was exactly what they were fighting about. "Did you tell him you were married at the time?"

He paused for just a second, and in that second Jo remembered the alternate timeline. Nothing was different with Danny yet, but those changes had a way of sneaking up on her. But then he shook his head. "I don't think so. I mean, I wouldn't lie. I probably just referred to Rachel as my ex-wife, and he got the wrong idea."

"And I'm sure you have no idea how that happened. It's not like you were purposely misleading."

Danny looked slightly amused. "She is my ex-wife."

It was easier to let it go. "It's my fault anyway. I should have told Zane about Georgia when I told him about everything else. But we talked about it, and you don't have to worry, because we're going to be fine. Thanks for your concern." She picked up the tablet for the sixth time. "But if you don't mind, I'm kind of busy here."

Danny nodded. "Right, I didn't mean to interrupt."

He did not look entirely convinced as he walked out. That was probably her fault as well. It was a little hard to sell that she and Zane were going to be fine when she was pretty sure it was not true. She stared at the tablet for a few seconds before putting it back on her desk. This was not going to be a very productive workday.

–


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note:** I had trouble deciding from whose perspective I wanted this scene to be, so I switch back and forth a couple times, which is not my usual style.

–

–

**Chapter 7**

Wednesday night was Carter's night to stay late at the Sheriff's Office. It had been this way since his first week in Eureka. And since it was an established fact that he would not be home until after midnight on a Wednesday, Allison and the kids had no reason to stop by. This meant that Jo had the entire house to herself for one evening every week. As someone who was used to living alone, she really needed that.

Technically, she was not completely alone. ANDY was in his closet, doing whatever it was that he and S.A.R.A.H. did in there. Jo did not know what went on in that closet, and she did not want to. But the situation meant that S.A.R.A.H. was distracted, which in some ways made it even better than being alone in the house.

Upon arriving home that evening, Jo changed into her most comfortable sweatpants and vegged out in front of the television. She was contemplating ordering a pizza when the doorbell rang. She turned her head to look at the door, but nothing happened. Ten seconds later, the doorbell rang again, and Jo turned off the TV and stood, wondering if she was supposed to get it herself. She was not sure how she could be expected to do that considering there was no doorknob on this side. As she approached it, S.A.R.A.H. finally announced, "It's Mr. Donovan. Should I let him in?"

Jo glanced down at what she was wearing, and she honestly wanted to say no. She was a complete mess, and she was not sure if this Zane had ever seen her like that before. Then the doorbell rang for a third time. "Yeah, let him in," she answered, running her hands over her hair to smooth it out.

The door swung open on a concerned Zane. He stepped across the threshold. "Is S.A.R.A.H. mad at me or something?"

"No, she's just . . . busy." Jo gestured back to ANDY's closet. She did not know if he would understand the implications, but that was as much as she was willing to say about it.

While she was talking, he noticed her outfit, and a smile broke out on his face. "I like this look on you."

Unsure whether he was teasing her or being sincere, Jo decided to put him on the defensive. "What did you say to Callahan?"

"Oh." Zane's cocky expression became slightly sheepish. "That's a funny story. He thinks I said you were going to sleep with him."

That was the last thing she expected. "Wha—Why would you—"

Zane waved it away. "Relax. That's not what I said." Zane's swagger was back in full force as he walked over to the couch and assumed a comfortable position, acting like he owned the place. "He just heard what he wanted to."

There were not a lot of things Zane could say that would be misinterpreted that way. "Then what did you say?" Jo asked through clenched teeth.

"Let me ask you something. What do you think would have happened if Major Danny showed up in your old timeline?"

Jo did not like the way he avoided the question to ask an inane hypothetical. "No, tell me what you said."

"I will. After you answer my question."

She knew it would be childish to point out that she asked him first, and heaven knew one of them needed to act like an adult. So, fine, she thought, same situation in a different timeline, as if that had any relevance here. "Well, I wouldn't have needed to lie about having a boyfriend because I'd be engaged." Then she remembered the look on her Zane's face when she did not give him an answer. "Probably."

Zane tried to keep his expression easy-going, but she had to be kidding him with that. His voice had more on an edge to it than he wanted when he asked, "Are you saying there's a possibility you might have broken off the engagement for him?"

"No!" It seemed that for a second she was too offended by the thought to even figure out where it came from. Which, from Zane's perspective, was good.

"No," she repeated more calmly. "It's just that when you . . . When . . ." She was having trouble figuring out how to refer to him. "When my boyfriend proposed to me back then, it took me by surprise, and I needed to think about it. And by the time I was ready to give him an answer, he was gone. He, uh, he didn't exist anymore." During this, her gaze had wandered to the wall, but now she made eye contact with him again. "So all I meant was, probably it all would have worked out fine, but it's hard to tell, because he had such a fragile ego."

Jo did not talk about the other Zane very often, which was fine with this Zane because he never knew what to do with the information when he got it. He did not know what the point was in asking about that timeline anyway. In some ways, she was just talking about another ex-boyfriend. Yet, even though she made a point to distinguish her almost fiancé from him, that part about the fragile ego sounded very pointed. Because in other ways, she was kind of talking about him.

Since she had answered his question and more, he needed to hold up his end of the bargain. "What I really said to Major Danny was that even if you did sleep with him while I was gone—" Jo huffed at this. "—it wouldn't matter, because as soon as I came back, you'd still chose me. I think I said you were crazy about me or something like that."

"Okay." He could almost see the wheels turning in her head as she tried to decide whether that was really okay or not. She spoke slowly. "I guess that's not so bad. But why—"

He cut off her question. He knew why and it had nothing to do with their fake relationship. It had to do with their real one. "I kinda need you to say it."

She crossed her arms, still trying to figure out how any of this would help with Callahan. "You want me to tell Callahan that I'm crazy about you?"

"No, I want you to tell me." It kind of scared him to just put it on the line like this, but if they were going to go forward, somebody needed to start. "I don't know exactly what this is or what kind of strain six months apart is going to put on it, but I want it to still be here when I get back. So I want you to tell me that it will."

It was such a simple thing, and yet, he knew what he was asking was huge. Jo opened and closed her mouth a few times, but she did not seem to be getting any closer to finding the words. Zane decided to back off a little. "Can you at least just promise that you aren't going to fall back in love with him while I'm gone?"

She gave a slight nod, but it still took a while before she spoke. "I'm not going to—I was never in love with him, okay? I mean I've been in love, and what I had with Danny was nowhere close to that."

The way she avoided eye contact at that moment, Zane knew she was talking about him. Or someone who shared his name, face, and aspects of his personality. For the moment it helped to know that, at the very least, there was one alternate universe where he came out well ahead of Major Danny. It wasn't even close there.

She continued, "Obviously, I'm still a tiny bit affected by him, but that's just . . . history. He's not—He cheated at West Point, he cheated in Georgia, and I don't know what broke up his marriage, but I'm willing to bet it was more cheating. I made a mistake when I took him back last time, and I'm not going to do that again. I don't want to be with Danny."

Zane wished he could just take that at face value; it would make things a lot easier. But it just sounded like a lot of rationalizing to him. "Here's my problem with that, you didn't want to be with me either."

He could tell from the way she sputtered that the comparison had never occurred to her before. That didn't really make it better. She finally brought her syllables together into words. "That was different."

He hoped that was true, but he needed more. "How?" She actually shrugged in response to that, so he laid it out for her. "You didn't want to be with me. And every time you swore it was the last time, but then you just kept doing it."

Her lips curled up into a bemused smile. "Are you really complaining about that?"

She was distractingly adorable in her sweatpants and baggy t-shirt, but he was not going to let her get him off topic. "Honestly, your lack of self-control when it comes to ex-boyfriends never bothered me before, but now it's kind of an issue. So, how is it different, Jo?"

It was not until he said it that Jo knew exactly how it was different. She was not sure if he was going to like her answer though. "You're not my ex-boyfriend, Zane. I didn't—don't want Danny because everything he's said and done just confirms that he is exactly like the other Danny. I didn't want you because you weren't the other Zane."

She saw him visibly deflate. That fixed the Danny problem, but it was going to cause a whole new host of problems. "Well, that's an honest answer."

She had to make him understand. "It's not a bad thing. I mean it was at first. When I first got to this timeline, you were rude and arrogant and just not someone worth taking a chance on. Because I already fell for one version of you, and I lost him, and I couldn't go through that again. And you weren't even interested in me anyway. Do you realize the only reason you want me is because you found out that some other you did once upon a time?"

"That's not the only reason," he said, giving her a look that made her pulse quicken.

Jo had to ignore that, because otherwise they would go off on a wildly inappropriate tangent. "But then I got to know you, and you might . . ."

He sat up more fully, interested in where this was going. "Might what?"

Jo was not sure if she should say it; she wasn't even sure if she should be thinking it. She sighed. "You might even be better than the other Zane. I mean, don't get me wrong, he was great; I loved him. But the way we talk and the way you treat me . . . You might be better. But it's still scary because the one thing that was definitely better about the other Zane was that he loved me too."

She had not been thinking when she said the last part. She was so busy worrying about the this Zane being better part, that it took her a second to realize her last sentence might have sounded like a challenge. Zane had a pensive look on his face, and she tried to backpedal. "Not that—I wasn't trying to—"

It turned out that was not the part he was thinking about. "How did he treat you?" he asked, cutting her off.

"What?" She remembered the context. "Oh. No, he treated me fine." She finally sat down on opposite end of the couch, curling her legs under her. "It's just that you . . ."

"I treat you better," he finished for her.

That was not exactly what she meant. "It was mostly the Astraeus thing. Going through the candidacy together, it felt like we were . . . I'm not sure how to put it because I know that I'll never be your intellectual equal, but—" He rolled his eyes at that, like he did not see that much of a difference between them. That was exactly the kind of thing she was talking about. "But it feels more like we're equals. Other Zane never said anything, but I always kind of felt like I was just some townie he was dating."

Zane thought about this. "Even after he proposed?"

Jo tried to remember what she was feeling when that happened. "There wasn't a lot of after to that timeline." She needed to change the subject, and she remembered that this whole bearing of her own soul was on the heels of some declarations of his own. "So what was it you wanted me to promise? That I'll still be here when you get back?"

"Yeah, that you'll choose me over Major Danny no matter what." He sounded less nervous about it this time.

She pushed herself up and took a couple kneeling steps toward him. "But I thought you didn't care anymore."

Her chest was now inches from his face, and he chose to look there. "It's Wednesday, right?" He pushed up the bottom of her shirt and put his hand on her bare hip. "Carter won't be home for hours."

"No." She batted away his hand. "Tell me how you don't care."

"Fine, I care," Zane said reluctantly. "I don't want you to sleep with Major Danny." He gave her arm a light tug, causing her to fall back onto the chaise lounge part of the couch. Then he crawled over her and whispered, "I want you to sleep with me."

Before she could even respond to that, his lips were on hers and he was sliding his hand under her shirt again. She had only gone one day without this, and she already missed it. The idea of going six months without his hands and his mouth and all his other parts sounded like torture. At that moment, she knew that this, whatever this was, was definitely going to be here when he got back. But her own mouth was too occupied for her to tell him that.

When he moved down to her neck, something occurred to Jo. "Wait, no, stop."

He pulled back, narrowing his eyes at her. "Why?"

She slid out from under him and pulled him to his feet. "ANDY's here. We have to go upstairs."

He looked around the downstairs as she dragged him to the staircase. "Where—Oh. So that's what you meant by S.A.R.A.H.'s 'busy.'" He smiled. "Good for them."

Jo still found the entire AI relationship weird, but there was something oddly endearing about Zane rooting for them. She looked back at him, stopping on the landing. He continued up the stairs so that he was now the one pulling her along. "Come on, you don't want your house to get further than you do tonight."

–

When Jack Carter pulled his jeep up in front of his house, he noticed the motorcycle parked next to Jo's car, which could only mean one thing at this time of night. Considering that these days Jo spent more nights away from the house than she did there, he had a pretty good idea that her involvement with Zane was still going on. It was one thing to know that, it was another to know it was going on under his roof.

He entered the house with his gaze averted. When he did not hear any telltale signs of activity, he allowed himself to look in the direction of the couch where the throw pillows were suspiciously askew. "S.A.R.A.H.," he called out to his house. "When did Jo go upstairs?"

It took her a second to answer. "Jo and Zane retired to her bedroom at 8:43 p.m."

Jack glanced at his watch. It had been nearly four hours, so he felt safe heading up. Even so, he gave Jo's guest room a wide berth on his way to his own. Once he had his door safely shut and his room relatively soundproofed, he reflected broadly, very broadly, on what was happening or what had happened just down the hall. He was actually pretty happy that those two crazy kids were working things out.

–


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: ** How amazing did Zane's place look in episode 5x05? I want to live there. (I think. I'd have to see the kitchen to be sure.) Also, this is the last chapter. Danny's gonna be in Eureka for a while; I can't give much more resolution than this.

–

–

**Chapter 8**

By now Zane had a lot of experience sneaking out of S.A.R.A.H. He and Jo usually had their rendezvous at Zane's apartment for convenience and privacy's sake, but there had still been many a night over the last six months when he had gotten in and out without Carter ever knowing he was there. This was not going to be one of those times. First of all, he hadn't even bothered to conceal his motorcycle, so Carter most likely knew he was there. Still, at the very least, he could have made his exit while Carter was sleeping or in the shower. He had woken up early enough for it too, but then Jo snuggled up to him, pressing the full length of her body against his side. And before he knew it, by the time he was dressed, Carter was already downstairs.

The smell of toast and eggs wafted to the stairs, making Zane realize just how hungry he was, but he decided it was better not to linger. Those few times he had run into Carter under similar circumstances had been fairly awkward. Zane had only recently gotten on okay terms with the town's sheriff, and he still had a little bit of a conditioned response to seeing him too early in the morning. There was a part of him that felt like he needed to get out of dodge before something went wrong and he was blamed for it, even though it had been quite awhile since he was baselessly accused of wrongdoing.

Zane had to go home to get fresh clothes. Unlike with Jo, people might actually notice if he wore the same clothes two days in a row. This combined with the morning's diversion meant that he rolled into the GD parking lot well after the start of the workday. It was fine; he was not really known for keeping a tight schedule anyway.

Zane knew that Jo had deftly managed to avoid making him any promises about the future. He was surprisingly okay with that. They made strides, big strides, the night before. "I don't want to" did mean something different with Major Danny than it had with Zane, and there were more differences between the two of them than just a criminal record. Zane never really needed promises from her; he just needed to know that he had a legitimate shot at keeping her. And last night had definitely shown him that.

Still, when he saw Major Danny come into the Astraeus lab, Zane thought there was no harm in getting a little more insurance. But he had learned his lesson about jumping into this kind of conversation half-cocked. No, this time Zane would wait for it to be right.

It didn't take very long to find the moment. Jo and Carter had found their saboteur, and as she hauled Dr. Kemp away, Jo flashed Zane a smile. There was something very sexy about watching the Enforcer do her job, you know, when she wasn't falsely accusing him. Although, it had not been entirely unsexy even when she was falsely accusing him, or not so falsely accusing as the case may be.

Major Danny caught whatever looks were exchanged between Zane and Jo and walked over to the competition. "Looks like you guys patched things up."

They stood next to each other, both looking out at the ship. "Yeah, I should probably thank you for that." In some ways Zane had Major Danny to thank for all the developments of the night before, but he was not going to get into that. "I mean I don't know what you said to Jo, but it worked."

"Glad I could help," Major Danny said with no discernible trace of sarcasm.

Zane crossed his arms, still not looking at the other man. "And as a token of my gratitude, I'm going to help you with your problem."

From the corner of his eye, Zane saw Major Danny smile and scratch the side of his neck. "And what problem would that be?"

"How to sleep with my girlfriend." He let that linger for a moment. "Here's my advice, don't try."

"You realize you're just making me want to do it more?"

Zane begrudgingly respected him for admitting that. "But see, you cheated on her, and then you cheated on your fiancée. And Jo's pretty sure your divorce was caused by more cheating. So if you go to her in three weeks—" Closer to two weeks at this point, but Zane did not want to dwell on that. "—knowing that she has a boyfriend, you'll just be proving to her that you have no respect for relationships or her. Not a good way to start."

Major Danny considered this for several seconds. "What if I'm cool with a one-night stand?"

"A one-night stand with a lonely woman who can't be with the man she really wants?" Zane shook his head. "No, I don't think you really get what you want out of this unless you steal her away from me. And considering that I'll be a billion miles away, it's not even that fair a fight to begin with. So it's going to have to be more than a one-night stand."

He snorted. "Do you really think I'm going to wait six months just to make it a fair fight?"

Zane finally turned to face Major Danny. "I don't know. I don't really care. Go ahead and go at her with everything you've got; I'd be interested to see how that works out for you. But my advice is sound."

Satisfied with the way that had gone, Zane walked off to find work. With the launch so close, there had to be something he should be doing. At this point, whatever was going to happen was out of his control, and there was a part of him that was curious about what would happen if Major Danny really tried to seduce Jo.

There was just a little more shoring up of the relationship Zane needed to do with Jo, but she was tied up with redactions and getting someone else sent to federal prison for once. He was sure that he'd distracted her from enough work for one week.

–

Zane waited for the end of the day before seeking out Jo in her office. He was glad to find her there because he knew how he wanted this conversation to go, and he did not want to wait any longer. "So the bad news is I may have strengthened Major Danny's resolve to sleep with you. But I think you can hold out."

Jo came around the front of her desk. "Why do you keep talking to him?" she asked with a smile.

"I think it really helps sell me as your fake boyfriend" He backed her into the desk. "That's what I am, right? Your _fake_ boyfriend?"

Jo gave that a lot of thought. A lot of breathy, not-fully-focused-on-the-subject-matter thought. "We could probably stop referring to this as fake."

That was what he was hoping she'd say. "But if we drop the fake part, that leaves the designation as just 'boyfriend.' You okay with that?"

She nodded. "I am if you are."

"Oh, I'm very okay with it." Zane had not gone to her office with the express purpose of sex, but it felt like he was getting the signal from her. He pressed in closer to Jo, really pinning her in. "You know these in office hook-ups would go more smoothly if you wore a skirt."

She laughed. "That wouldn't really be practical, given my line of work."

She had a point there. "No, but it would be crazy hot."

He leaned in to kiss her, but Jo placed her hands on his chest to hold him off. "Are you doing this because you're hoping Callahan'll walk in on us?"

The thought had not occurred to him, but now that she mentioned it . . . "That would be awesome."

Jo was not in agreement. "I think we should take this somewhere more private so that neither one of us is thinking about my ex-boyfriend. Because I really want to be able to focus on my current boyfriend."

Private was good too. There were a lot more things they could do in private. In two weeks, and for the next six months after that, Zane would be obsessing about what Jo was doing back on Earth. But right now, for this moment, he knew with stunning clarity that he and Jo were going to be just fine.

–

**END**

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–

**Author's Note:** So that's the end. I want to thank everyone who read and reviewed. (Especially the ones who reviewed.) You've all made breaking into the Eureka fandom a really rewarding experience.


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